50/50

When you ask a Ugandan how he or she is doing, there are 4 possible responses:
(a) Good
(b) Okay
(c) Fair
(d) Fifty-fifty

Fifty-fifty used to bug me. It seemed like the blandest of responses; an elaborate "mehhhh". But I've come to think differently. When someone tells me that they are "fifty-fifty", he/she is saying that the day has been split between opposites. Now that makes sense. In this world of extremes - each day layered with moments of effusive joy and hopeless sadness, sweetest pineapples and deepest potholes, stimulating research ideas and frustratingly slow internet connections that make their transmission near-impossible - the balance may come out neutral, but the experience never is.